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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION: MAY 20, 2015
Contact: Richard Horan (267-322-0905); pr@bars-sf.org
Sara Davis Buechner, internationally renowned pianist and transgender
activist, performs a recital and two concertos with the Bay Area Rainbow
Symphony (BARS) at the San Francisco Conservatory, June 6, 3pm (recital)
and 8pm (orchestra concert)
Saturday June 6, 2015 3pm, Piano Recital Crossing the Concourse: Sara Davis
Buechner in Music and Words
Saturday June 6, 2015 8pm A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman. Sara
Davis Buechner performs two concertos with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in
an entire program of compositions by women.
The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) is San Francisco’s leading orchestra
dedicated to promoting LGBTQ composers and artists. For BARS’s June 6th Pride
Concert at 8pm, BARS will perform compositions exclusively by women, with
soloist Sara Davis Buechner, an internationally renowned pianist and transgender
activist. In conjunction with the BARS concert, Buechner will perform an
additional recital at 3pm during which she will speak about her transgender
journey, gender and gender roles. She will play short piano pieces, including one
of her own compositions.
About the June 6, 3pm, Piano Recital: Crossing the Concourse: Sara Davis
Buechner in Music and Words. Buechner will illustrate her life story and
transgender journey with short piano pieces, including one of her own
compositions. Buechner will talk about being the T in LGBTQ and share with
dignity and humor what she has learned along the way about gender, gender roles,
and discuss how preconceptions have both limited and enhanced her own life.
Followed by a Q&A session.
About the June 6, 8pm BARS orchestral concert A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Woman with soloist Sara Davis Buechner. To meet its objectives of
inclusivity, visibility and pride more fully, BARS will feature pianist Sara Davis
Buechner in a program of compositions exclusively by women. This is the first
time BARS will perform with a transgender soloist. All of the pieces in this concert
were written when the composers were starting to write orchestral works. The
orchestra will open with Partita, a work for strings and piano written in 1938 by
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Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915‐1940) when she was 23. She was forced to leave
Czechoslovakia right before the Nazi occupation and died in exile at age 25. Sara
Davis Buechner gave the US and Canadian premieres of the Partita, and the
performance will be part of the centenary celebration of Kaprálová’s birth.
Second, Buechner will perform Clara Wieck Schumann’s Piano Concerto.
Schumann was a child prodigy. She started work on her piano concerto at age 13
and premiered it at age 16 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, with Mendelssohn
conducting.
The concert will conclude with Serenade (1889), which is English lesbian
composer Ethel Smyth’s (1858-1944) first orchestral piece. Smyth studied music at
Leipzig in the 1870’s where she met Clara Schumann and Brahms. Subsequently,
she socialized with Clara Schumann and her lesbian daughter Eugenie Schumann
in Frankfurt. Smyth still has the distinction of being the only woman to have an
opera performed by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She also dedicated two
years to working in the suffragist movement. This will be only the second
performance of the Serenade in the US; the Women’s Philharmonic performed the
US premiere in 1993.
BARS will have a reception following the concert to honor Sara Davis
Buechner.
About Sara Davis Buechner:
In her twenties, Buechner won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Gina Bachauer
International Piano Competition, and was a Bronze Medalist of the 1986
Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. With an active
repertoire of more than 100 piano concertos, she has appeared as soloist with many
of the world’s prominent orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic,
Philadelphia Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony and
BBC Philharmonic.
Audiences have applauded Buechner’s recitals in venues such as Carnegie
Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl; she enjoys wide
success throughout Asia where she tours annually.
Sara Davis Buechner’s numerous CD and DVD recordings have received
prominent critical appraisal. She can be seen and heard on numerous live video and
audio recordings on her website and YouTube Channel. She has created many
essays in written, spoken and film format on her blog “Sara Says.”
She is a Professor of Piano at the University of British Columbia and an
Honorary Visiting Professor of Music at the University of Shanghai.
In 2012, she spoke before a standing committee on human rights in Ottawa
in support a federal transgender rights bill. She was a keynote speaker at the
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Outgames Human Rights conference.
For more information, please see two profiles in the New York Times NYT 1 ,
NYT2, an essay she wrote for the New York Times NYT3, a brief documentary by
the New York Times NYTV, and her website.
Calendar editors, please note:
June 6, 2015
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St @ Van Ness
3pm Piano Recital: Crossing the Concourse: Sara Davis Buechner in Music
and Words Tickets $10-20
8pm Concert: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman Tickets $15-35
Dawn Harms, Music Director & Conductor
Vítězslava Kaprálová – Partita for Piano and Strings
Clara Wieck Schumann – Piano Concerto
Sara Davis Buechner, piano
Ethel Smyth – Serenade
Tickets: www.bars-sf.org or call 1-800-595-4TIX
Bay Area Rainbow Symphony
The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) is an orchestra that provides a
safe and supportive environment for musicians of all sexual orientations, gender
identities, and gender expressions. BARS makes cultural, social, and educational
contributions to the SF/Bay Area by performing ambitious repertoire to a high
standard. BARS had its first concert in June 2008. A leader in the LGBTQ
orchestra movement, BARS is one of the few LGBTQ symphony orchestras in the
US, and one of twelve worldwide.
BARS stages four concerts annually. Each performance features 60-80
musicians. The BARS LGBTQ Composers and Performing Artist Series
showcases LGBTQ composers and soloists.This series has included works by
Schubert, De Falla, Barber, Smyth, Britten, and Copland, as well as works by
living LGBTQ composers like John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, David Conte,
Elinor Armer, Clarice Assad, Conrad Susa, and Lowell Liebermann. Many
esteemed LGBTQ soloists and conductors have performed with us including
violinist Bettina Mussumeli, soprano Christine Brandes, organist Jonathan
Dimmock, soprano Melody Moore, saxophonist David Henderson, and conductor
Michael Morgan. For more info see http://bars-sf.org/ and videos in BARS Vimeo
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(which includes a performance by Frederica von Stade, in the last trio from the
opera Der Rosenkavalier)
Dawn Harms, BARS Music Director and Conductor
Dawn Harms' diverse career ranges from chamber musician, violin soloist,
and concertmaster, to music director and conductor. She is a first violinist in the
San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster for the New Century
Chamber Orchestra, and Co-Concertmaster with the Oakland East Bay Symphony.
She recently conducted the San Francisco Opera orchestra in a full concert
“Overture to the 2014-15 Season”. She is the only woman music director of an
orchestra in San Francisco.
Dawn has conducted the Amy Beach Piano Concerto with Daniel Glover,
soloist and the world premiere of Scattered: Concerto for Scat Singing and Piano
by Clarice Assad. As a chamber performer, she performed the world premiere
Times of Day for piano trio and soprano, composed and performed with Jake
Heggie at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.
A strong advocate for music education, Dawn designs and performs her
family concerts for children with symphony orchestras throughout the United
States. She also teaches at Stanford University.
FUNDING: These concerts are funded in part by the Grants for the Arts/San
Francisco Hotel Tax Fund and the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy.
Images for download:
Sara Davis Buechner:
http://bars-sf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/buechner-w-little-piano-larger.jpg
(photo credit Yukiko Onley)
Ethel Smyth by John Singer Sargent:
http://bars-sf.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/Ethel_Smyth_by_John_Singer_Sargent.jpg
Dawn Harms Photo:
http://bars-sf.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/DawnHarmsPhoto.jpg
BARS Photo:
http://bars-sf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/BARS-Group-Photo.jpg
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Links in article:
Bay Area Rainbow Symphony: www.bars-sf.org
New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/13/magazine/his-debut-as-a-woman.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/fashion/15genb.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/booming/growing-acceptance-for-thetransgendered.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0BR-54xzkE
Sara Davis Buechner website: http://saradavisbuechner.com/
BARS Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user24480644